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Revelatory robots

How futuristic technology is shaping the anti-fraud profession

July/August 2018

ByEmily Primeaux, CFE

Data analytics has been helping organizations detect fraud for years. But the future of fraud prevention and detection is looking toward new technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to stop fraudulent behavior before it costs companies millions.

Computers now are taking on other computers or robots. On Dec. 7, 2017, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary DeepMind challenged then world champion chess-playing program Stockfish 8. AlphaZero, the game-playing AI created by DeepMind, taught itself how to play chess in less than four hours and beat Stockfish 8 in a 100-game match up. AlphaZero won or drew all 100 games. (See
AlphaZero AI beats champion chess program after teaching itself in four hours, by Samuel Gibbs, Dec. 7, 2017, The Guardian.)

According to The Guardian article, DeepMind’s programmers didn’t give AlphaZero any human input except for the basic rules of chess, but it achieved a superhuman level of play in chess and shogi (a similar Japanese board game) within 24 hours. The difference between AlphaZero and its competitors is that DeepMind doesn’t give its machine-learning approach any human input apart from the basic rules of chess. It learns the rest by playing itself over and over using “self-reinforced knowledge.”

Self-reinforced knowledge is coming in handy not just for chess-playing robots — the anti-fraud profession is using the same technology to help fraud examiners detect fraudulent behavior before it costs organizations millions in losses.

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In this column we share our view of some new technologies that have the most promise of providing major value to future fraud examiners. We also discuss the significant role colleges and universities must play in educating professional fraud examiners of the future.